TravelStream™ news feed for member gregjul on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/gregjul en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 24 Dec 2007 23:30:53 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1198047120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1198047120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1198047120/tpod.html Mon, 24 Dec 2007 23:30:53 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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New York City, New York, United States

story to come
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197874200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197874200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197874200/tpod.html Mon, 24 Dec 2007 20:50:49 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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Boston, New York, United States

We arrived in Boston by train at about 15h00 and headed off to the Midtown Hotel where we would be staying for the next 2 nights.  We were happy to find a nice room and spent about an hour just relaxing and unpacking a few things.  Then we decided it was time to go exploring....Our first stop was a really huge shopping centre down the road from the hotel which we decided we needed to walk through just to 'have a look'.  Then it was off to the Beacon Hill area where we walked through a really beautifully lit up park covered in snow as well as a frozen pond which is used for ice-skating in the winter months.  The real reason for coming to this area was to visit the pub which inspired the television series 'Cheers'.  On the way we also saw the Massachusetts State House and enjoyed walking around this old 'English' style area which is all lit up by gas style lamps.  The sidewalks are also paved with the narrow red bricks which proved to be a little slippery under the ice and I ended up falling on my butt! To Greg's disappointment, he has just stopped filming ahead of him and so missed the fall entirely!  Luckily there were no serious injuries and I was soon all smiles when we arrived at the 'Cheers' pub and had to go down the stairs in the traditional way.  It was great!  We found a table and were soon ordering our meal - all inspired by the characters from the show. We started with a calamari special which was cooked with jalapeno peppers...it was really tasty.  Then we moved on to the main course.  I ordered Norm's extra-large cheese burger (just like Norm) and Greg ordered Sam's cheese-steak roll.  The whole meal was DELICIOUS!  We even got ourselves a souvenir 'Cheers' beer mug and walked back to the "T"(metro) to head back to our hotel.  The next morning we had a fairly lazy start and decided where we wanted to go.  We got ourselves a day pas on the "T" and decided to make the Cambridge area our first stop.  Here we hung out for a while at a cafe where the Harvard Students spend their non-studying hours...and then wandered around the campus admiring all the interesting buildings.  We also went into the Harvard Coop which is where the students are able to buy most things they need...it was a cool place and we ended up buying a couple of items ourselves.  Our next stop was intended to be the area near the waterfront and the site of the 'Boston Tea Party'.  Unfortunately the ship is currently under construction which meant that we couldn't actually see much of it.  So - we decided to give it a skip.  We headed back to hotel instead and had a little rest before getting ready for the big game.Before long we were headed off to TD Banknorth Stadium to watch the Boston Bruins take on the Ottawa Senators.  For those of you who are not avid ice-hockey fans these are the two top teams in their league and so it was set to be an exciting, high-quality clash!  The Senators are the current Stanley Cup holders, so are very good.  We arrived at the stadium only to find that they did not allow any bags into the stadium...great - considering the fact that Greg had a backpack.  Fortunately, after some convincing, one of the security guards said that he would keep it in a side room for us!  Phew!  We proceeded through security, picked up a quick drink and then rushed off to find our seats.  They were awesome seats and we had a great view of the game with nobody sitting in front of us.  We were really excited!  After about 5 minutes the lights and music started and before long the players were on the ice.  It was all very interesting.  The game was fast and rough and the force with which the players smashed each other into those plexi-glass sides was phenomenal!  The Bruins have a really huge guy - 'Charra' - who seems to have honed this skill to a fine art!  The Senators took the lead in the first period and seemed to have more control over the game.  The Bruins equalised in the second period but went behind again with the score being 2-1 at the start of the third.  They went on to score another to make it 3-1.  It got really exciting again in the last few minutes when the Bruins scored to make it 3-2 and were really applying the pressure.  Unfortunately they just couldn't equalise and the score remained like this until the end of the game.  We had such a great time but were really disappointed that we couldn't get any photos of the game, or ourselves watching, as our camera was locked away in the security room!  Oh well ....it was great nonetheless and we will always remember our great ice-hockey experience in Boston.We attended a few live games on our USA/Canada leg of the trip and the ice-hockey game was the best.We visited the a really fascinating bridge on the way home and took some photos of this before heading back to the hotel for our last night in Boston.  Our train to New York was scheduled to leave the next morning at 09h35 and we were looking forward to our 4th visit to the amazing New York City!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197527820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197527820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197527820/tpod.html Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:30:22 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada

We wanted to get to Montreal in the daylight, so we had only one choice, the 6:35am train from Niagara to Montreal!So, the birthday was certainly over when we awoke at 5am to get ready and catch a cab to the train station.  The journey was broken into two parts, a two hour ride to Toronto, and then 5 hours to Montreal.When we got to Toronto, we had a coffee at a café in the station and we got our last Amtrak tickets (for Boston and New York).  The plan is to spend two days in Montreal, go to Mark & Gaylene for a day, then up to Boston for two days, New York for two days, going back to Mark on the 20th and staying there until we leave on the 26th.So we boarded our Montreal train, excited to see the city often referred to as "little Paris".  We had been told by so many people that Vancouver was great, and we found it boring (and just like so many other big cities), so we were not expecting too much from Montreal.Well, the surprises kept coming.  When we walked into the station, it seemed we had walked into a huge European market.  There were Italian bakeries everywhere, French cafés, restaurants, coffee shops etc.  The atmosphere was lively and friendly.We wondered outside to grab a cab and walked into a winter wonderland, everything was covered in thick white snow.Our cabbie took us past China Town and into an area called "the Latin Quarter", "it's very safe"he said, "lots of bars and restaurants".  It did look very good down our street, called St. Denis.We booked in to our hotel and found it exactly as it appeared in the photos on hostel bookers for once!  The room had a small kitchen (microwave, kettle, fridge, basin, cutlery etc), desk, double bed and bathroom.  So we were all set.We headed down our street to see the Latin Quarter.  It was -16 degrees centigrade as we wondered down the street, and we could feel the cold.  We were wearing our usual snow protection which consisted of a neck piece (it looked like a long sock with holes on both ends, so we pulled it over our heads and once nestled around our neck, we pulled it up over our face, just below our eyes), gloves, beenie and snow coat.  We were also wearing our thermal underwear, so we could feel it was -16, but we were quite comfortably warm.The problem I had was with my glasses.  With the neck piece pulled up to cover my nose, as I breathed, the air blew onto my glasses and made them mist up.  I would be walking along, carefully trying not to slip, as my glasses got more and more misted up.  Eventually I could see nothing, so I would have to either pull the neck piece down, exposing my nose to the cold, or clean my glasses off.It sounds like nothing, but to clean my glasses meant taking off a glove to get my handkerchief out.  With my glove on, my hand would feel like a weird appenditure that I had no control over.  With my hand exposed to the cold, it made my whole body start to get cold, so not good.  Jules kept laughing at me because if I pulled down the neck piece, my nose got so cold it would turn very very red.  In addition, the colder it got I would swear I could hear a dog barking!  I thought maybe I was losing my mind, and Jules agreed, saying she always knew I was nuts.So we battled through the cold into the Latin Quarter.  The entire street was filled, on both sides, with restaurants, cafes and coffee shops.  It was so cool.  Everything was covered in snow and the Christmas lights were starting to shine as the sun went down.  By 4pm it was dark and the entire street was awash with coloured lights.  It looked like a scene from a European movie.Speaking of movies, we went into a movie house to find out what was showing.  Unfortunately all the movies were in French.  This is not uncommon, as 50% of Montreal is French speaking.  In fact, Montreal has a distinct French feel to it, but, unlike Paris, the locals are very friendly and prices are reasonable!After wondering around for a while, we stopped in at a café and had a soup and sandwich. While we were munching, we planned our movements for the evening and following day.  A guy sitting near us overhead our discussion and gave us some travel advice for getting round the city, so we took a walk to the McGill metro station.Then we entered another world.  Underneath the streets is one of the biggest shopping malls in the world.  The shops run through the centre of the city and are accessible at Metro stations.  This underground city was amazing.  We spent a couple of hours wondering around and then found an Imax theatre.The Imax was inside a big movie complex, and the movies were all in English!  So we grabbed some popcorn and went in to see "The Golden Compass" - very enjoyable.After the movie we walked back to our hotel, loving Montreal.Friday morning came around quietly, and we lay in bed until 9am before going down to breakfast.After breakfast we set off on our quest to find the house Rob was born in.  The only reason we decided to visit Montreal was because Michelle asked me to get a photo of Rob's birth home.We used "google map" and realised that his house was quite close to our hotel.  We bought a Metro day pass, and caught the underground to the Jean Talon district.  We walked a couple of blocks, and there it was, Des Ecores street.The street was absolutely covered in snow.  In fact the snow was knee high on the sidewalks.  We walked down the road, crossed onto the next block, and there we were, number 7409 stood in front of us.  Our quest was finished, we had found it!  We felt like Scott in the Antarctic ...... I wanted to climb on the roof and stick a South African flag up there ...... then sanity prevailed and I just took a few photos.There was no-one home, so after taking a photo of the neighbouring house, we decided to get a photo of the rear.This proved much fun.  The alleyway leading to the backs of all the houses, was snowed in big time.  The snow was thigh high.  Jules decided it felt like a perfect mattress, and it would make a good "facebook" picture, so she decided to lie down in the snow!  Obviously I had to then as well, so we ended up getting covered in snow, but we could not make a snowman as the snow was too soft.We took a photo of where Rob played as a child, and then headed back to the Metro and to our next stop, Place d'Armes.Place d'Armes was the stop for the Basilica Notre Dames.  It is an impressive cathedral and was well worth the visit.  While we were admiring the architecture, the snow began to come down much harder.  Images of Scott battling through blizzards in the Antarctic came to mind, and as I heard the dogs howling, I decided we had to keep moving to stay warm.We scrambled through the snow to the waterfront and began walking to the "Old Town".This area, along the waterfront, is how I imagine Russia to be - have a look at the photograph I took and see what you think?We walked through the Old Town, amazed at the traditional toy stores, French cafes (serving onion soup) and old buildings.  We saw a nativity scene in a park, almost covered in snow and we picked out a restaurant that we would return to for supper that night.We made our way back to the metro station and got back to the hotel late afternoon, in time to watch CMT and have a snooze.  While Jules had a sleep, I went down to the internet café and finished loading up all the outstanding photos and articles.  Then we set off to have supper and take a few night photographs of Montreal.  We found our restaurant, a lovely Italian one, and had a delicious meal.  We had a Christmas set menu with Jules going for the Tilapia with scallops and shrimps, while I had the Jack Daniels fillet with Portabella mushrooms.The restaurant was filled with companies having their Christmas parties, so it was loud and buzzing.  There was a DJ giving it horns and we enjoyed our last meal in Montreal.We then took night shots of the Basilica Notre Dame and various other sites, before stopping at the Starbucks in our St. Denis street.We both agreed that Montreal was by far the best city we had visited in Canada.  While Jasper was one of the most enjoyable experiences of our entire trip, the Canadian cities were a major disappointment, except for Montreal.   We were truly sad when we climbed into the cab on Saturday morning, but we soon brightened up when we reminded ourselves we were on our way to see the Kockotts in Pennsylvania!The train journey was 11 hours to Penn Station in New York and now we have a short wait for our connecting train to Holland Pennsylvania.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196924460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196924460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196924460/tpod.html Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:58:16 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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Banff, Alberta, Canada

On our second day in Jasper we were jumping into a van at 8:30am and heading down the Icefields Parkway with two other couples.Joe, our driver and guide, gave us some information about the Jasper and Banff National Parks, which are side by side and form the Icefield Parkway.Jasper is the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, spanning 10,878 km².  The park includes the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, hot springs, lakes, waterfalls and, of course, mountains. Wildlife in the park include elk, caribou, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, grizzly bear, black bear, beaver, Rocky Mountain pika, hoary marmot and caribou.The park was established on September 14, 1907 as Jasper Forest Park, and was granted national park status in 1930. Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885, in the Canadian Rockies. The park encompasses 6,641km² of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. The main commercial centre of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley.The Icefield Parkway highway is 230 km in length and connects the towns of Jasper to Banff, running through the National Parks.  No commercial vehicles are permitted on the parkway.  The entire Parkway is a U.N. designated World Heritage Site. Construction of the road began in 1931 when the Canadian government put unemployed men to work for 20 cents a day, during the Great Depression.  The single-lane gravel Banff to Jasper road opened in 1940.  During the 1950s/60s the tourist boom helped to widen and pave the road, and give it it's present name.We set out in -30 degree weather and had our first experience of "in car frosting".  Joe handed us frost scrapers to scrape off the frost which formed on the inside of the windows!It is almost impossible to describe driving through the Rocky mountains.  The Icefield Parkway is listed in Lonely Planets top 10 world drives, and boy does it deserve to be!  Everywhere we looked there was massive, gigantic snow covered mountains, right next to the road.  I can only hope the photographs help to describe what we experienced.Our first stop was the Athabasca Falls. We jumped out the bus and sank up to our calves in snow, but because it was fluffy (champagne snow) it never made us wet.The cold hit us like an unsuspected sucker punch - hard and surprising!  Our noses turned red within 5 minutes and my ears got so cold that they started to burn.  Jules' hair began to freeze, see the photo!The Athabasca Falls were absolutely stunning to behold.  The river was pumping and sending water rushing over the falls.  However, because of the ridiculously cold temperature, a lot of the water was freezing as it went down the falls.  This made for amazing stalactite and stalagmite formations all over the falls.The river itself was something to see with steam rising above the running water, caused by the difference in temperature between the water and the surrounding air.  Most of the surface water had frozen, but we could hear the loud noise of the water running below the surface ice, amazingly loud.We spent about 15 minutes at the Athabasca Falls before jumping back into the bus.  We were all frozen and enjoyed the bus' heater as we continued along the parkway.Unfortunately for us, being winter, all the lakes were frozen over and so we did not get to see the beautiful striking blue glacier waters that can be seen in the summer.  So we drove past the lakes, admiring their winter beauty.Our next stop was an impromptu one when we noticed a coyote on the side of the road.  We pulled over and watched the coyote sunning itself just along the tree-line, before it became weary of us and strolled away.The massive Columbia Icefield was next on our itinerary.  It covers 325km², is up to 350m deep and its melt-waters feed three oceans.  It is the largest accumulation of ice south of the arctic.  From the icefield flows 6 glaciers, the biggest being the Athabasca Glacier, where we were standing.We stood and admired the glacier, struggling to comprehend that the front of the glacier was higher than the Eiffel Tower!!Along the next portion of the road we came across a falls climber.  He was the lead climber, so he was going up placing in hooks etc. so the climbers following him had a route to follow and would be attached safely to the mountainside.  We watched him for a while and then jumped back into the warm bus.Our last stop before Banff was Lake Louise.  We had been driving for 3 hours so we welcomed the chance to use the bathroom and get something warm inside us.Lake Louise is home to the landmark Chateau Lake Louise.  This luxurious hotel still boasts bell boys who wear the traditional lederhosen worn by Swedish mountain guides.  In the 1940's, Swedish guides were imported and employed to guide skiers and mountaineers up the mountains overlooking the lake.The lake was named after one of Queen Victoria's daughters, Louise.  It is one of the most visited sites in the Rockies, but when we arrived there was no lake, just a massive frozen lake.   We took a self-portrait and then sprinted inside to find some warmth.The chateau has huge murals depicting the history of the park and the chateau itself. Original photographs were projected onto walls, and artists painted the sepia toned photographs on the walls inside the chateau.After having the coffee we had brought along in our flask, we set off for Banff.  As we neared Banff we saw a big herd of elk near the road, so Joe turned off the road and we got quite close to the female herd.  In winter the females (no antlers) herd together while the males herd together in different areas.We discovered that males shed their antlers every year, growing a bigger set the following year!Then we were in Banff.  Banff is a lot bigger than Jasper and has all the tourist trappings imaginable. Joe took us up Buffalo road to show us an authentic  Scottish castle.  I cannot remember it's name, but it is a huge hotel, built exactly like a Scottish castle, in Canada!After a minestrone soup, sandwich and Starbucks latte we hit the Icefield Parkway again, for the 4 hour return trip to Jasper.Rather than boring, it was fascinating to watch the setting sun as we drove home, and we learnt a lot about Canada from Joe.  He explained the latest goings on in the NHL and we were excited to hear that we have booked tickets for a great game in Boston.We didn't know, when booking the tickets, that the Ottawa Senators were defending Stanley Cup holders and the Boston Bruins in 3rd spot.  So we now are looking forward even more to our first live ice-hockey game on December  18.We arrived home, Jules had a hot tub while I cleaned all the camera lenses and backed up the photo card.  Then we went down to the "Fireside Lounge" and had supper in front of a log fire.We finished our cremebrula contemplating the fact we were leaving in the morning, not a happy thought.  If the train had not been late, we could have had our dog sled ride, but what can you do?  We wondered How late our morning train may be?!Then it was sleeping time and we stopped caring.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197486600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197486600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197486600/tpod.html Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:31:03 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Well, 56 hours on the train did not sound long if we said it quickly!  Then we need to include the 5 hour delay, so saying 61 hours still doesn't sound that long ...... and to be fair it was a good journey.We spent the first few hours out of Jasper up in the observation car, staring like moegoes, with our mouths hanging open at the incredible Rocky Mountain scenery.  The observation car was a dome roofed carriage with windows above and on the sides allowing us full view of the vast Canadian landscape.After a few hours we headed back into the general car and we settled back across our 2 seats.  We had secured a "group" area which is 2 two seater's facing each other.  The idea was that we could lie with our legs on the seat facing us, giving ourselves a single "camp style" bed!  It worked like a charm and we slept soundly each night.  We brought along a few bags of "eats" and we managed to keep our forays to the dining car to just 1 lunch - which we thought was brilliant.  We did make a few stops in the onboard café for coffee, tea, sandwiches and the "pot" ........ oh yes, we even delved into the world of the pot noodle on one occasion.We did not run out of chocolates, biscuits, chips, popcorn and nuts, which always seem to have enough of somehow?!The prairies were flat and went on for as far as the eye could see, and were covered in snow.  We met very interesting people on board, a guy that looked so much like Damon that I was saying hi to him before I realised he was in fact a German guy, (who thought I was nuts), a nutty oldish woman who spoke to herself incessantly, a really nice Mexican lady who had lunch with us in the dining car and a weird couple that spent the entire 3 days upstairs in the observation car!The train is a most sociable way to travel.  In the dining car you are placed at tables of 4, so you are forced to socialise - a strange concept of travel in the 21st century.  The train should movies twice a day, so again, we socialised.The train also has games, books, newspapers and magazines for passengers to use.  I kicked butt big time in an Olympic droughts game, but Jules had revenge when she narrowly beat me 6-1 in "rummy" (it was a massacre!)The only negative side of a three day train journey is not having a shower on board.  The hand basin is only that .... a hand basin.  The most noticeable feature of this "hand basin" syndrome was seeing Julies' hair get flatter and flatter until the name Elvis was appropriate, although I don't think the King ever used that much grease!It wasn't pleasant on day three when our clothes tried to run away from us, and our B.O.  The only redeeming thing was that we were all in the same boat (or train I suppose is more correct) and so we all tolerated the over use of our deodorants.So we arrived in Toronto's Union Station (why are all train stations called "union") 5 hours late at 12:30am and went outside to find a cab.  It was so much warmer than Jasper, 3 degrees centigrade.  We were approached by this grey haired old guy who offered to give us a ride downtown in his new taxi.He herded us in and then squashed in a young New Zealand girl for good measure.  We set off and I commented that his meter was not running!Once he dropped off the young girl, Jules asked him why his meter was not running and he said he had a good fee for us and not to worry. He asked us where we were from and then he went nuts!  He said he loved South African fruit and only drank Ceres fruit juice.  "In fact", he said "look here" and he started taking fruit out if his bag.  Now, this in itself is not a biggie, but this nutter was digging into his bag while driving at 60 miles per hour on snowy sludgy streets and he ran a few red lights (as well as stopping at a few green lights, to which cars behind us objected loudly by blowing their horns), while showing us a naartjie and a lemon.  This probably does not sound too bad, but the fact he spent more time turning to look at us, than on the road, freaked us out!He also had a habit of accelerating quickly and then standing on his brakes just as fast.  We were happy to reach our budget hotel quite quickly and we paid him his "special" price of $12.  We learned how "special his price was the next morning, when our cab drive to the station cost us $9, including the tip!We got inside our hotel, showered and were asleep by 2am.Once we had caught a cab to the train station and had locked up our bags in storage, we set off to explore Toronto.Toronto is the largest city in Canada, and is the provincial capital of Ontario.It is located on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario with over 2.5 million residents and is the fifth-most populous municipality in North America.  Toronto's population is cosmopolitan and international, reflecting its role as an important destination for immigrants to Canada. It is the world's most diverse city by percentage of non-Canadian-born residents, as about 49 percent of the population were born outside of Canada.  While all of the above information about Toronto is interesting, we had our own name for Toronto - boring.Grey skies, big tall buildings, blah blah blah.  We walked to the waterfront, near the ferry terminal and popped into a Starbucks for breakfast.We came out to walk amongst the falling snowflakes, which soon turned to an irritating rain which continued the entire day.We had a look at the CN Tower (the tallest man made free standing structure in the world) [wow, a long tall building, now that's something you don't see everyday!], the Skydome, the Canadian version of stars on the pavement and various other buildings.By this time we were pretty wet, so we decided to head into a shopping mall on Yonge Street, the Eaton Mall.  We spent a few hours there (had another Starbucks) and then walked back into the rain to find an Internet café.Once more our Lonely Planet guide book was spot on and we found a café where it was supposed to be, no mean  feat!  I spent an hour uploading photos and then we grabbed a cab and headed down to the station to catch our Niagara Falls train.This train journey is a mere 2 hours.  So, we will wake up in Niagara Falls for my birthday - cool bananas!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197354960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197354960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1197354960/tpod.html Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:54:13 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

On 11 December, we arrived at the Niagara Falls train station at 9pm.  We were fascinated by our first glimpse of the Niagara Falls town as our cab made it's way to our hotel.We were up on the 8th floor, right next to the elevator, no coconuts in sight!We quickly unpacked a bit and then went for a quick walk to find a restaurant  nearby.  We walked down Niagara Falls' version of the Las Vegas Strip, noting the neon lights in the freezing cold.  We had not anticipated it would be as cold as it was, so we cut short our walk and headed to TGI Fridays for supper.Over supper Jules informed me of the plans for the 12th, my birthday, and it all sounded great.We were woken on the 12th just after 7am by the "gang" who all wanted to say "happy birthday", or in Steffi's case, sing it!  It was very enjoyable to speak to everyone and the view of the sun rising, outside our window, was amazing.Jules then gave me my gifts, all very thoughtful, especially the Adobe Photoshop CS3 photographer's handbook - great!We had breakfast in the Golden Griddle  - pancakes, eggs and thick peameal bacon, and then we headed outside to get our first sight of the Falls.  I was feeling disappointed as Liverpool lost to Reading, but all that was forgotten as we wondered down the street towards the Falls, stopping in at many shops along the way.As we neared the end of the road, we started to hear the Falls, and see some mist over the street.  We got the end of the street and right in front of us was the American Falls.The centre of the Niagara river is the boundary between Canada and the USA.  The Falls on the American side are called "The American Falls", while the Canadian side falls are called "Horseshoe Falls".We watched the American Falls for a while, but have to admit they were not that impressive when compared to the Iguassu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil.  Contributing factors are that it was winter, therefore only 50% of the usual water was flowing over the falls, and the total water flowing over the American Falls is only 25% of the total water, with the Horseshoe Falls having the 75% balance cascading over itself.So we enjoyed the sound and the view and then turned to our right and began walking towards the Horseshoe Falls.  The first thing we noticed was that there was a massive cloud of mist that reached way above the Falls, in the centre of the river.We agreed that this was much more impressive.  As we got closer, the roar increased and soon we could feel a drizzle on us from the spray.  We had to walk carefully as snow was melting all over the place and we kept slipping on the ice!We spent quite a while at the Horseshoe Falls and were more impressed by these falls than the ones on the American side.  The major difference between Iguassu and Niagara (in our opinion) is the surrounding area - Iguassu is a national park and so the falls are surrounded by nature, while Niagara is surrounded by "Ripley's believe it or not", "Guinness Book of Records", "Burger King", a ferris wheel, "Hard Rock Cafe" and many high rise hotels.I'm sure this would appeal to many people, and is why Niagara is a popular destination for weddings and honeymoons, however, Jules and I much preferred seeing the animals and bush in Argentina.The Niagara Falls are located 27 km north-northwest of Buffalo, New York, 120 km south-southeast of Toronto, Ontario, between the twin cities of Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York.While not exceptionally high, the Niagara Falls are very wide. More than six million cubic feet of water fall over the crest line every minute in high flow, and almost 4 million cubic feet on average. It is the most powerful waterfall in North America.We took a lot of photos and asked 3 different people to take our photo before we managed to get a photo that was OK.It was sunny most of the time, but if the sun went behind a cloud, it felt a lot colder.  We decided to grab a take-away pizza and have a nap before going out for supper.  However, we first went to Starbucks for a holiday "Gingerbread" latte, which I paid for with my special Starbucks birthday gift card.I really enjoyed the latte and my mood improved even more when I read Liverpool had won 4-0 and were through to the final stages of the Champions League, go Stevie G's reds!  We took a while to get to "Little Caesar" and our supreme pizza as w  stopped off to buy various items along the way.Back in the hotel room we had our pizza in bed, had a snooze and then went down to the hot tub upon waking.  The hot tub was great, but too good as it made us late for our dinner reservation.  We rushed to the Skylon Tower and went up the exterior glass elevator to the top.  We had reservations in the revolving restaurant, which has a magnificent view of both Niagara towns and Falls.I feasted like a king on a big rack of New Zealand lamb, while Jules had a Fillet Mignon.  The restaurant revolved twice while we ate, giving us a memorable view.  While the actual building does not revolve, the restaurant itself revolves!  Along the window sill there are facts about Niagara  on typed plates, which you read as you revolve, very cool.Once we were finished eating, I went up onto the roof and took some night shots of the Niagara Falls, through the protective fence.  Then I came in from the freezing cold and we headed back home - yes, certainly a birthday to remember!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196881800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196881800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196881800/tpod.html Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:34:45 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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Jasper, Alberta, Canada

After getting to bed so late, it was no wonder we only awoke at 9:30am.We took a walk into town.  We had missed almost a full day with the train being late, so we wanted to see what activities we could fit into our 2 days we had left.We found the "Overlander Trekking & Tours" company office and booked the Maligne Canyon Ice Walk for 1pm (the only one left) and the Icefield Parkway tour for the following day.  We were gutted that we couldn't do a dog sledding ride, but that took up half a day, so by arriving 12 hours late, we had forfeited that activity!We continued our walk around Jasper and found a neat café called "Bears's Paw Bakery".  Very Canadian and very good food.  The temperature was -16 and the inside of the café was 16, so it was very warm and cozy.We settled in and had soup, chicken Somoza, and a sandwich with our lattes.  We sat listening to the Canadian locals and soaking up the atmosphere.We did a short tour of the town, popping into souvenir shops and generally having a look to see what was on offer.  We were a bit irritated as we wanted to dog sled, or ski, but we knew there was nothing we could do about it, so instead we headed back to the chateau to get ready for our canyon ice walk. At 12h45 our guide, Trevor, picked us up and drove us into Jasper to get snow boots and strap on cleats, and then we were off to the canyon.On the way we stopped twice, once to get a shot of a coyote and the second time for a shot of a male elk.Trevor explained that the animals had become accustomed to humans and vehicles, as they were protected in the National Park.We reached Maligne Canyon after 25 minutes, strapped on our cleats and made sure we had our gloves, beenies, scarves etc.The pamphlet advertising the ice walk explains best what we experienced ......"experience the wonders of the Maligne Canyon from the ground up.  Your guide will lead you safely along the frozen canyon floor through its maze of fascinating ice sculptures.  Explore the entrance to a cave system, ice caves, fossils and towering frozen waterfalls stretching over 30m up the canyon walls."It was an awesome walk.  We started by crossing a swingbridge and then we walked down into the canyon.Trevor pointed out where underground springs fed the river running through the canyon.  The current weather conditions meant that the river was frozen over, but we could still hear it flowing under the ice.  In places we could see through the top layer of ice, and we watched the water flowing beneath us.There were spots where we walked 5m behind each other, so as not to crack the ice and fall into the -34 degree water below!We had a look inside an entrance to a cave system where stalagmites and stalactites had formed because of the sudden drop in temperature.  We broke off little bits and put them in our mouths - good cold water.One of the most amazingly cool things we did was to go inside an ice cave.  Flowing water had frozen as it flowed over the edge of the canyon wall, forming a solid frozen wall.  Trevor went in first and poked around with his ice axe to make sure it was safe to go inside.  It was truly amazing.  We crept inside and were totally surrounded by ice, all over, top, bottom and sides.  I get knocking down the long pieces of ice hanging from the ceiling because I would grab hold of one to assist while moving, and it would break off!We couldn't take any photos inside as the camera lens misted up completely, I did try a few but they are very hazy.  At least the video camera worked, so we have it all on film.We took photos from the outside of the ice cave, so you will have to use your imagination when thinking what the inside looked like (until you see the video that is).We moved further along the canyon and saw some fossils, before coming through a narrow area to where the Angel and Queen waterfalls were.The waterfalls were obviously not flowing anymore as they were all frozen.  As we studied the falls we could see water dripping down onto the frozen falls and freezing, thereby making the falls bigger.Trevor explained that many people participate in a sport called "fall climbing", whereby they climb up a waterfall.  He showed us marks where climbers had recently been climbing up Angel falls.  This looked very dangerous to us ...... climbing up frozen water .... how do you know if the wall is frozen enough to take your weight?  Trevor just shrugged and said it was all part of the adrenaline rush, "it's 90% mental he said" - I agreed with him, fall climbers must be mental!The Queen Falls were much bigger than Angel falls, dropping some 50m down.  We admired all the frozen patterns of the falling freezing water, but we could not get too close as the ice was too thin in this area, and Trevor thought we may go through it!We had to head back from this point as it was too dangerous to continue walking on the canyon floor.  We climbed up onto the canyon edge for the walk back, and this elevated view was brilliant.All too soon we were taking off our cleats and boots and heading inside our chateau room.We decided to go and take a hot tub, so we grabbed our costumes and headed for the pool room.  A 20m indoor pool had a hot tub next to it, which we climbed into.  We were joined by an Aussie couple from Darwin and a local Canadian girl from Edmonton.The tub was very hot and relaxing.  We didn't know, but there was also a hit tub outside, in the snow!  It had a roof, but was otherwise open to the elements, so we decided to give it a bash the following day.We walked into town and went grocery shopping, buying goodies for our forthcoming 56 hour train journey.  We then stopped in at an Italian restaurant and had some brilliant pasta for supper.We hit the sack earlyish as we had to be up early in the morning for our Icefield Parkway tour.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196708940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196708940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196708940/tpod.html Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:03:21 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a British explorer.  We set off, like George, to explore the 3rd most "livable" city in the world (first being Zurich and 2nd being Geneva), in the pouring rain. The rain was making it hard for us to enjoy Vancouver, and we certainly didn't feel like we were in a great city.We caught a tiny boat, called a "ferry" by the Canadians, and went 2 minutes across English Bay to Granville Island.  There were a lot of craft, ski clothing and souvenir shops on the island, under a big suspension bridge.  We also found a huge fresh produce market with everything you can imagine, including fresh fish for Africa.After having a look around we caught the tiny ferry back to the banks of English Bay and contemplated our next move.  We were getting pisxxd on by the rain, and staying outdoors seemed like a bad idea, so we followed a local guy that took us to the Skytrain, by bus.The Skytrain is an unmanned railway line that runs through Vancouver.  We caught the Skytrain to the Metropolis Mall and understood why Vancouver is sometimes called "Hongcouver" by the locals.  The entire train carriage was filled with Asian people.  Apparently only half of the population of 2 180 737 people speak English as their first language, which is an indication of it's ethnic diversity.Population density is highest for a major city on the continent after New York City, San Francisco, and Mexico City, and on track to being second by 2021.We found the mall to be absolutely gigantic!  We walked around for hours, shopping and eating.  I had KFC and Jules had a Greek lunch.  After being there for a few hours we headed into a book shop called "Chapters" and had a Starbucks latte (and the customary photograph).  We jumped off the Skytrain at Gastown, which is an area near the waterfront that has been turned into a "tourist" area.We went there specifically to see (and hear) the steam clock.  It runs entirely on steam and makes all sorts of different noises on the hour, and half hours.  We had a good look and then made our way down the wet street (aptly called "water") stopping at various souvenir shops on the way. We then decided to go back to the hostel and we spent a good 3 hours on the internet café near the hostel.  We went into a supermarket to get supper.  We bought a pile of veggies and made a veggie stir-fry for supper, delicious, just what the doctor ordered.We began day 2 in Vancouver with a good breakfast in the hostel of toast, porridge, croissants, fruit, juice and coffee.  We set out for Stanley Park (the same guy that donated the National Hockey League cup) in overcast, but dry weather.  It was a walk of 25 minutes and we were glad to be able to walk without getting rained on.  We read some of Vancouver's history as we walked ...... Vancouver was first settled in the 1860s as a result of immigration caused by the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. The city developed rapidly from a small lumber mill town into a metropolitan centre following the arrival of the transcontinental railway in 1887. The Port of Vancouver became internationally significant after the completion of the Panama Canal, which reduced freight rates in the 1920s and made it viable to ship export-bound prairie grain west through Vancouver.The economy of Vancouver has diversified over time, however. Vancouver has a growing tourism industry, for example, and has become the third-largest film production centre in North America, after Los Angeles and New York City, earning it the nickname "Hollywood North".This was all very fascinating and we decided that maybe Vancouver was not so bad after all.  We reached Stanley Park and began walking around the edge of the bay.  We came across a rowing club that also advertised field hockey!  This is rare in Canada as "hockey" means ice hockey!Even more strange was that as we walked along the bay, towards the totem poles and lighthouse, I noticed two eyes and some grey whiskers sticking out of the water ...... it was a seal.I started filming the seal and was amazed when it swam towards us.  As we walked along the edge of the bay, it swam next to us!  We walked for about 10 minutes along the edge and it shadowed us the entire way.Eventually we came to the Totem Poles and we had to say goodbye.  At this point we said "hellow" to our old Vancouver mate - the rain.  As it poured down on us, we decided we did not like Vancouver again!We admired the Totem Poles, saw the lighthouse and then started walking back along the bay.  As we neared the end of the bay we got a fright as a plane came suddenly over the trees near the bay.  It was flying very low and then we noticed it had floats and not wheels.  So I quickly got the video camera out and filmed the plane landing on the lake.  We watched for a while and managed to film another plane taking off, from the bay.It was great to watch this and as I turned to go, Jules noticed a bird on the lake with something in it's mouth.  It was a big white bird, floating on the water, and it was juggling something in its mouth.  I zoomed in and was fascinated to watch the bird trying to swallow a flatish fish (it had the shape of a Dover sole).  It would clasp the fish between it's mouth and then suddenly open it's beak and the fish would go almost all the way down its throat, but the fish would suddenly appear again.  This went on for a while and then the bird dived under the water and I couldn't find it again! So we continued on towards downtown Vancouver.  The rain stopped as we began walking up to downtown, so we decided not to catch a bus.We had a good lunch (calzone and pepper steak pie) in a café called "Bojangles".  It was warm and dry inside, a rare treat indeed!The main shopping area is in Robson street, so we headed there on our way back to the hostel.  We went into various shops along the way and spent time in the internet café again, bought a new book each, bought goodies for our train ride and then got a taxi to the train station, happy to be leaving.The train was on time for a 5:30pm departure and we were very excited to be going to a "real" ski village.We settled in and enjoyed our supper of chicken pieces (not KFC), coleslaw and potato salad that Jules had bought from the supermarket.  The journey was an 18 hour one, leaving Vancouver at 5:30pm and arriving in Jasper at 11:30am ....... ya sure!We had a really good breakfast of pancakes and bacon in the dining car and settled down to wait for Jasper.  We were then informed we were a bit behind schedule.  During the night we had not moved much (probably why we had slept so well) due to an avalanche and 3 landslides.  All the snow had to be cleared from the tracks each time, so we were 12 hours behind schedule!We eventually arrived in Jasper at 12pm.  We put on our backpacks and began walking down the main street to our lodge, Marmott Lodge.  We knew it was along the street and so figured it couldn't be that far.It was -29 degrees centigrade and we were getting very very cold as we walked along the road.  Despite our gloves, scarves, beenies and coats the 1.5km walk was freezing.  As we walked we noticed some shadows near the road.  We slowed down and were then surprised to see that the shadows were elk!  The biggest ones were bigger than a horse and we did make sure we walked slowly past them, but being so cold, we refused to make a detour around them.  We checked in and rushed to our room,  jumped into the shower and allowed ourselves to feel warm again before we started chatting about how exciting it was to be in a "real" skiing village.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196276880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196276880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196276880/tpod.html Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:54:26 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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Chicago, Illinois, United States

There have been times on our trip when Jules and I just stop and acknowledge how blessed we are to be having such a wonderful adventure, and today was one of those days.  But rather than be thankful for a particular adventure, we were grateful for a wonderful couple who made us feel part of their family within half an hour of meeting them.Denny and Mary-Ann, or Mak, to her mates picked us from Union Station in Chicago and we had three brilliant days with them, especially enjoying Denny's "Robert Deniro" Chicago accent!The train from New Orleans was an hour late, and instead of being confronted by an irritated Mak, we were confronted by an elegant, composed lady, waiting patiently in her long coat for us.  After introductions and waiting another 30 minutes for our luggage, we went outside to meet our chauffeur, otherwise known as "Denny".  Denny drove us around for three days with a smile on his face, with nothing phasing him in the least ..... even being chased by the police!So Jules and I jumped into the back of the car and we were taken on a great tour of Chicago.  We started with Lake Shore Drive, driving along the banks of Lake Michigan and seeing Buckingham Fountain, Adler Planetarium, The Field Museum of Natural History and the Shedd Aquarium.  We stopped for a photograph of the Chicago skyline with Navy Pier in the foreground.  Denny and Mak pointed out the tallest buildings - Sears Tower and the John Hancock building.  Mak explained that John Hancock had signed his name extra large (sarcastically) on the USA Declaration of  Independence for King George to see (who had supposedly bad eye sight) - so Dad now I know why you say "give me your John Hancock"!We were rushed past a big stadium that had Roman style columns on the side of it and then it appeared as if a flying saucer had landed in the center of the stadium.  We asked what it was and reluctantly, we were told it was Soldier's Field, the home of the Chicago Bears football team.  Denny and Mak trash talked the Bears and their field something awful!  Ok, I am just adding that in, they were gracious enough to explain the history of the Bears, before they began to preach to us of the one and only football team, the PACKERS!  So now we are brain washed Green Bay Packers fans for life - go Favre!  (ooooo I know I will get it from Mak when she visits South Africa in March, but,  bring it on I say ...... as I have the Amarula!)Back to the serious stuff, we were then taken to the "Bean".  This is a massive, stainless steel kidney bean that sits in Millennium Park, with the city's skyline reflected on it's surface.  We admired this piece of art while watching some locals skating in the ice rink just below the Bean.  The main attraction in Millenium Park is designer Frank Gehry's band shell.  It is a huge stage where big bands deliver performances, while the audience sit in front of the stage.  Overhead are mounted lights and speakers, so even people sitting on their picnic blankets at the very back of the lawn can hear clearly.  It looked very good and we imagined joining Denny and Mak,  sitting on their blanket, sipping some wine, enjoying the symphony while we ate copious amounts of cheese ..... well that's cheeseheads for you!We were brought back to reality by the -3 Chicago cold and the wind chill! Dennie picked us up and we set off on the quest to find the best hot-dog in Chicago!  Lonely Planet guide book says that a "typical Chicago dog is piled high with onions, relish, mustard, hot peppers, celery salt and a warm pickle spear". Denny pulled out his little orange note page and told Mak to guide us to 2622 North Clark street, to the "Wiener's Circle", which she duly did.  So there we were, inside the Wiener's Circle, with Denny getting us a "real" Chicago dog, while Mak went for a dog with mustard and tomatoe sauce!  Now everyone knows you never put tomatoe sauce on a dog!  Oh well, there was nothing we could say, but Paul & Debbie certainly showed Mak the error of her ways that evening!We enjoyed our Weiners big time and then Denny set off to find Wrigley Park, home of the Chicago Cubs.  Wrigley Park is in the suburb of Wrigleyville, surrounded by lots of bars.  This is a very unique baseball field as it sits slap bang in the neighborhood and has games in the afternoons.  This ensures it stays local, with school children able to finish school and then go and watch the Cubs playing.  None of the "big stadium out of the city" crap like other baseball fields!  The only downside we discovered was that if you are a Cubs fan, you will probably never see a World Series win in Wrigley Park - since 1910, no Series win in Wrigley!  However, the Red Sox broke a similar streak in 2004,so maybe, and it's a big maybe, the cubs could do the same?We pondered this very important thought as we introduced Mac to a beer shandy.  Mak did not know that the beer shandy is for wannabee beer drinkers, too woosie to have a real pint, so they have half a pint of beer and half a pint of 7-up.  Well, she took to it like a duck to water and from then on Jules and Mac could not be separated from their Shandies!We were then dropped off at Macy's to have a look at the storefront windows.  Macy's has a new Christmas story in their windows each year, with robotic puppets acting out the story.  This year it is the Nutcracker (which, when I first saw it, made me break out in a cold sweat when I remembered being forced to watch the Russian Ballet perform it in London - I remember Julie's Dad and I excitedly jumping up to leave after an hour of pain, only to realise it was just intermission!)!Well, I wiped my brow and followed the story across 9 or 10 windows, and it was impressive (especially since this nut cracker only lasted 10 minutes!).We hailed our chauffeur and set off for the Sears Tower.  The Sears Tower was originally built to house all the Chicago based head office employees of Sears, in a time when Sears was economically booming, but fairly soon after moving in Sears were forced to move out and sell their building as they could not afford to stay in their own building!Denny parked the car near the Sears Tower and we were shocked to see the cost of parking - yes, it appeared the mafia still controlled Chicago!  After Denny mortgaged his house to pay for the parking, we had an ear popping ride up to the 103rd floor in 70 seconds.It was an amazing experience up there.  Not only was the 1454 feet high view magnificent of every Chicago nook and cranny, but the entire history of Chicago was displayed on poster boards for us to read.  In 1971 (I think), the Sears building was the tallest in the world.We learnt about the great fire to the present day and had a good laugh with Denny when he made real some of the history we were reading.  In 1959, during the Cold War (when US citizens believed the Russians were coming) the Cubs won the World Series away from home (obviously!).  When the news reached Chicago, the fire chief let loose the city's sirens in celebration!!  Well, most folks had no idea that this was a celebration and so Denny's family along with most of Chicago (except for the fire chief) were bundled into cars and started heading out of the city.  The plan was to evacuate to bunkers in the country.  Denny said after about 15 minutes they heard on the car radio that the sirens were just a celebration!  I'm not sure whether the fire chief kept his job, but today Denny can laugh about the experience, while he helped us to understand a bit of Chicago's history.Next our tour guides mortgaged their lake house to park near Miracle Mile.  The best way to describe the Miracle Mile is to say it is the Rodeo Drive of Chicago.  All the designer label shops are there, with all their Christmas splendour.We strolled along the beautifully lit up street and agreed with Mak that only some snow could improve the evening.We admired Chicago's famous landmark, the Water Tower, which is a 154 foot turreted structure, which is famous for being the only building to survive the 1871 great fire (mainly because it was made of brick!) unlike the rest of Chicago that burnt to the ground.  We saw the famous "L train" that loops  around Chicago's downtown area, before Denny said it was time for our second Chicago only eating experience - the Deep-dish pizza.  Out came the orange note page and we were off.Denny had used the web to find Chicago's best hot-dogs and pizzas. The hot-dogs had been great, so we eagerly awaited the pizza!  We were in such a hurry to get to the pizza place that Denny went through an orange light, that turned red on us very quickly!  We heard a police siren and then the hi-speed chase began ....... ok, so Denny politely pulled over, but imagine if he had decided to make a run for it?!The police agreed with Denny that the light did change quickly and off we went.  Rather exciting we thought, never having been pulled over ourselves, for driving up a one street, so not familiar with the whole procedure!We drove in the 6pm rush hour traffic, thankfully, in the opposite direction of the heaviest traffic until we found it.  The name escapes me, but Denny's reaction I remember well.  We did the perfect drive by ...... Denny slowed down, we rolled down the windows facing the pizza place, we all leaned out the windows and then we sped away a  we rolled the windows back up.  Denny screamed in anguish as we saw the pizza place, proudly offering customers pizza by the slice.  So, the orange paper was discarded, alas it had failed us.  However Denny and Mac had the perfect back-up plan ...... Mr. Weber!  As we approached Mr.Weber we saw a huge red Weber kettle braai outside the restaurant.  It was huge and was soon a prop for a photograph.  The meal was one of my best on the trip .... kettle braaied chicken and ribs with red beans, coleslaw and biscuit.The chicken was great, but the ribs were something else ..... they had thee most meat on a rib bone I have ever seen, sort of like a double-story rib!The red beans were in a sweetish sauce that was magnificent, the cold slaw tasted like the Colonel's cold slaw (which everyone knows is the best cold slaw in the world) and the biscuit was a warm home made one, simply delicious (for those that may not know, a biscuit in the US is a scone like piece of bread).Jules enjoyed her meal, but not as much as I did.  The only problem we had was again trying to pay for our meal, but Denny and Mak just kept shaking their heads and refusing to take our money.  The only time on our trip we had this much fun for nothing was with my Dad, so we thanked them for a wonderful day as we set off for our digs for the night.We were asked to abuse the Chicago Bears as often as we could, as we went into meet Paul and Debbie (Denny's sister and brother in law). We had a great time doing what we like best - talking about our trip.  Paul and Debbie were gracious hosts and we went to bed happy and amazed at how at home we felt with Denny, Mac and their family.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196622540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196622540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gregjul/the_great_trek/1196622540/tpod.html Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:35:39 -0500 140 days to cross 5 continents on our round the world trek from London to New York, via Asia, Australiasia, South America and North America.

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entry & travel map

Seattle, Washington, United States

We arrived in Seattle at 10am after a 41 hour journey from Portage, Wisconsin. The train arrived a half hour early which was pretty amazing for such a long journey through the snowy Montana plains & Glacier National Park - part of the Rocky Mountains. This train route is called the Empire Builder and the views of the landscape were really amazing. Unfortunately a lot of the route is in darkness but during the daylight the sights of pine forests with snow laden branches were unforgettable as we rode through the mountains & valleys of Montana & Washington State.Our plan was to wander around Seattle for the rest of the day before catching a bus to Vancouver.  So we stored our luggage at the station & set off to find what we had come here to see...the Holy Grail of our Starbucks quest...the first Starbucks coffee shop!! It was pouring with rain, but that wasn't about to deter us from our mission. We had the address from our Lonely Planet book and set off for the Waterfront to find Pike Street. After about 15 mins of trudging through the rain we found Pike Street & with renewed enthusiasm looked up the street to see if we could spot it..all we saw was a parking garage and some stairs. Then we saw a lady heading in our direction & Greg went over to ask her if she knew where we could find it. Of course she did and we followed her up the elevator and through the market where she pointed us in the direction we should walk when we left the marketplace.A few metres on & there it was...a small little shop with the original furniture ....no tables or chairs & no cakes or biscuits on display - just coffee & souvenir mugs etc. & yet it was in no way disappointing and I realised that this is exactly as it should be - understated & practical, as it was in 1971.  We were surprised to see that the Starbucks sign which has become such a familiar sight to us all around the world is actually different to the original one - still on display outside the shop. This was cool - it set it apart. We ordered ourselves lattes & sat on the window ledge inside just drying out & feeling satisfied that we had made this journey - one which reminded us of how close we are to reaching the end of this amazing adventure we're on. We took a photo of another couple from Florida who returned the favour & amazingly took a good picture! Greg bought a souvenir coffee mug flask and then we wandered around the small shop just looking around. There was a fascinating world map up on the wall which showed the countries around the world where Starbucks can be found as well as the number of shops in each of these. We were pleased to see how many we had visited ourselves; this also confirmed that there are no Starbucks in Cambodia nor in Argentina - so it wasn't just that WE couldn't find any! It was also amazing to see that there are none in South Africa & 9704 in the USA! So we discussed how we would get our Starbucks coffee beans sent to us in SA, OR should we not open our own Starbucks in SA?So it was time to leave...we walked around the surrounding market area which was great. Loads of fresh produce on sale and bakeries to die for!! It was still raining & after walking around for a while decided to try & get onto the earlier bus to Vancouver. We went back to the station, changed our ticket, had some lunch at a nearby café and were soon on our way to the Canadian border and Vancouver...on snowy roads driving through the rain! Welcome to Canada! We arrived at the border at about 4pm & had to drag all our luggage with us into the building to be checked. We had our passports stamped and were asked a few questions for the first time on our trip, but got through without any trouble. We were back on the bus and arrived in Vancouver about an hour later. We got a taxi to our hostel in the downtown area and were assigned a bunk bed in a 4-bed room - our first dormitory experience! We went in and were met by a fellow South African from Cape Town who was there with her boyfriend. So that was lucky - they seemed really nice and normal! It was great to hear a South African accent again and to see Gill shampoo and Radox shower gel in the window sill...how small things remind you of home when you have been gone so long!
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